Southwest Inspections

DALLAS (AP) - Southwest Airlines has inspected nearly 200 planes and put them back in the sky today. This after a foot-long hole opened in the cabin of an identical jet, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing in West Virginia.

Passengers aboard a Nashville-to-Baltimore flight said they could see through the hole above them, just in front of the plane's tail. The cabin lost pressure, but no one was injured on the flight. It carried 126 passengers and five crew members.

Southwest said it is unclear what caused the damage.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator to the scene to interview the crew and examine maintenance and inspection records, but could take months to find a cause.

A Southwest spokeswoman says the carrier inspected its Boeing 737-300-series jets overnight at hangars around the country and discovered no cracks in any of the others.

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